Admission to Nursing Homes in Taiwan

The population of Taiwan is facing a radical ageing process. A proportion of the growing number of people aged 65 and over is expected to need nursing home care. This research concerns the family context of decision‐making in the process of admission to a nursing home in Taiwan. Employing survey data from interviews with elderly people in nursing homes (235 interviews) and their carers/key families (265 interviews), the factors affecting their views about admission were explored. Bivariate analysis and a logistic regression model were also used to examine perceptions of alternatives to nursing home care among family members with elderly relatives in nursing homes. Most elderly people in Taiwan are cared for in their own homes by their families but, in some circumstances, entry to a nursing home seemed inevitable. This research found that the decisions were taken mainly within a family context. The adult children of the elderly people, carers/key families’ preferences and the availability of carers influenced the decision. Apart from the important need factors of elders, families’ views about alternatives to nursing homes were significantly influenced by their preferences. This study has important implications for long‐term care in Taiwan. It is hoped that this will be needs‐led, both by elderly people and their families.     

高校新生入学适应的小组工作介入模式

大学新生进校后,面对的是一个既新奇而又完全陌生的环境,他们要完成专业学习上的自觉、环境和自身角色上的认同、生活上的自理、思想上的自我教育、目标上的自我选择等一系列适应问题。在以往的入学新生教育中多采用思想政治教育的方法来解决,而笔者根据所学知识结合带组经验,从社会工作的角度出发,采用社会工作三大专业手法之一小组工作来介入高校新生入学适应问题,并为小组工作提出了一套小组工作介入高校新生入学适应问题的基本模式。     

Continuing to Pay: the Consequences for Family Caregivers of an Older Person's Admission to a Care Home

This paper aims to discuss the reasons why caregiving in the community had ended for a sample of dependent older people, two-thirds of whom had dementia. Comparisons are made between the situation of a spouse caring for a partner and a daughter or son caring for a parent in a separate household. Spouses in the study had often sustained a greater burden before caregiving collapsedthan had daughters or sons. They were less likely, however, to have had support from the home care service. When caregiving in the community ended and the dependent older person entered a care home, family caregivers themselves often had a financial price to pay. Currently spouses have a legalliability to contribute to a partner's care costs. The implementation of this liability depended on individual local authority policies and the views of the individual social worker doing the financial assessment. Because of the UK's means-testing rules, daughters and sons were often penalizedbecause a parent's assets that they might have inherited had to be used to meet the care home costs. Resentment at being disinherited was related to the daughter's or son's family situation. Those with children or grandchildren themselves were far more likely to be angry than those without children.     

Factors Predicting Admission of Elderly People to Local Authority Residential Care

Correspondence to Dr Ian Sinclair, Director of Research, National Institute for Social Work. Mary Ward House, 5–7 Tavistock Place, London WCIH 955 Summary Successful community care may partly depend on identifying thoseat risk of entering residential homes and targeting servicesto them. This article is concerned with how this identificationcan be achieved. It considers a sample of old people livingalone. in touch with home helps or social workers and followedup for between two and four years. The research examined thefactors likely to produce admission, and used discriminant analysisto predict it.     

"Contract" and Admission to Old People's Homes

Summary Various authors have recently recommended that residents inOld People's Homes should have ‘contracts’. Thisarticle begins by discussing the nature of contracts in general,and the circumstances under which contracts are or are not feltto be appropriate. The nature of Old People's Homes is discussed, and it is shownthat, under what would be considered good practice, there arefew reasons why Homes should not offer contracts. A final sectionputs forward some advantages which contracts might bring.     

家庭背景、学业表现与研究生教育机会获得

随着高校毕业生数量的逐年攀升和经济发展对高端人才需求的增长,越来越多的本科毕业生选择继续接受研究生教育以提高自己在劳动力市场中的竞争优势。本文对首都大学生成长追踪调查数据进行了实证分析,研究发现,2010年和2012年毕业于北京高校的本科生中,约有三分之一的学生选择了继续接受研究生教育,而且读研学生的家庭背景和学业表现都要显著地优于毕业后直接就业的学生。进一步的分析表明,在国内研究生教育机会获得中,家庭背景变量基本上是通过影响本科就读高校的类型和学业表现来发挥作用的,而比较海外留学与国内读研这两种选择,本科就读学校类型和学业表现对此并没有显著的影响,主要是家庭社会经济地位在起作用。上述研究发现对于当前中国的研究生教育招生和培养工作具有重要的政策意涵。     

Criteria for Welfare: Needs or Earnings?

The Report of the Poverty Commission followed Australian practice and recommended that payments to pensioners and beneficiaries be based on their needs. Two other recent reports, the Woodhouse Report on compensation for accidents and sickness, and the Hancock Report on National Superannuation, suggest an entirely different set of criteria—earnings and earnings-related contributions. It is argued that the latter proposals would discriminate inequitably between different groups of beneficiaries and that Australia should continue on a needs basis moving forward to a guaranteed minimum income scheme.     

法治国家的十条标准

由中国社会科学院荣誉学部委员李步云研究员和高全喜研究员承担的《马克思主义法学原理》研究课题,继2007年4月在北京召开"马克思主义法学与中国法治实践"学术讨论会(部分笔谈内容已经发表于《学海》杂志2007年第4期)之后,近期又召开了第二次学术座谈会,主题是"马克思主义法学与社会主义法治国家"。与会学者分别就马克思主义法学与中国社会主义法治国家的关系、法治国家的标准、依法治国的理论依据、宪政与法治的关系、宪法解释与宪法司法化,以及人民代表大会制度的进一步完善等问题,展开了热烈的讨论,并各自阐述了自己的观点与看法。课题组认为,刚刚召开的党的十七大对"全面落实依法治国基本方略,加快建设社会主义法治国家"作了全面部署。如何在理论上把马克思主义法学与中国社会主义法治国家的实践结合起来,这是一个新的课题,与会学者的观点和意见对于我们思考马克思主义法学的中国化问题,理解中国特色的社会主义法治国家模式,具有一定的启发意义。     

Evaluation: Stakeholder-focused Criteria

Identifying and selecting suitable criteria is an important consideration in evaluating the performance of public sector organizations. Which criteria are chosen, and how they are weighted, will depend largely on the perspective being taken; different stakeholders (for example, clients, providers or commissioners) are likely to emphasize different criteria. In this paper a number of criteria are identified and an argument is developed to indicate which criteria are likely to be valued by various stakeholders. Furthermore, a number of approaches and mechanisms for evaluation are identified and the links between these, the criteria appropriate to them and the various stakeholders are made explicit. Finally, the issue of politics and the distribution of power between the stakeholders is addressed with a call for greater explicitness in using and balancing criteria (for example, as between professionals and the intended beneficiaries of services). In this way, while recognizing the inherent political nature of performance evaluation, the planning and implementation of services may be improved by a more mutually informed approach to evaluation.     

加强行政许可监督的思考

监督原则是《中华人民共和国行政许可法》确立的行政许可必须遵循的一项重要原则。目前,我国行政许可监督权缺乏整体设计思路。监督权的重构与强化不仅需要系统的宪政制度和司法体制的改革,而且期待一个法治政府与公民社会的构建。     

武汉高校青年教师择偶标准的变迁

择偶不仅是缔结婚姻,建立家庭的前提,而且直接关系着日后家庭关系的和谐与否及婚姻质量的高低。同时择偶作为一种社     

Admission Preferences for Minority Students,Athletes, and Legacies at Elite Universities*

Objective. This study examines how preferences for different types of applicants exercised by admission offices at elite universities influence the number and composition of admitted students. Methods. Logistic regression analysis is used to link information on the admission decision for 124,374 applications to applicants' SAT scores, race, athletic ability, and legacy status, among other variables. Results. Elite universities give added weight in admission decisions to applicants who have SAT scores above 1500, are African American, or are recruited athletes. A smaller, but still important, preference is shown to Hispanic students and to children of alumni. The athlete admission “advantage” has been growing, while the underrepresented minority advantage has declined. Conclusions. Elite colleges and universities extend preferences to many types of students, yet affirmative action—the only preference given to underrepresented minority applicants—is the one surrounded by the most controversy.     

Eligibility Criteria and Entitlements: Defining Need for NHS Continuing Care

The 1995 guidance HSG(95)8 "NHS Responsibilities for Meeting Continuing Health Care Needs" required health authorities to develop local policies and eligibility criteria for a range of continuing care services. The role of criteria in defining health need, and the potential effect on open-ended rights to NHS care, need to be considered in light of the prior erosion of rights associated with changes in continuing care provision. This paper examines whether the development of eligibility criteria has led to a loss of entitlements to NHS care. Analysis of empirical evidence from a study of the policies and criteria of six health authorities found that criteria for fully funded care were generally well defined and restricted access to those with very intense and specialist needs, thereby constituting a loss of rights. In contrast, the criteria for community-based services left eligibility dependent on professional discretion but often failed to clarify the relationship between individual need and levels of service provision. The research found that resource limits are likely to remain a factor in the allocation of services and this will affect the status of the criteria as potential entitlements.     

Accountability Criteria and Policy Strategies in Direct Service Provision for the Aged

A broadly defined "marketing" approoch to accountability in service delivery is proposed, with particular artention to consumerism as it underlies the idea of accountability in the field of aging. Five policy strategies, aimed at strengthening consumerism, are identified.     

The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities*

Objective. This study examines how preferences for different types of applicants for admission to elite universities influence the number and composition of admitted students. Methods. Previous research with these NSCE data employed logistic regression analysis to link information on the admission decision for 124,374 applications to applicants' SAT scores, race, athletic ability, and legacy status, among other variables. Here we use micro simulations to illustrate what the effects might be if one were to withdraw preferences for different student groups. Results. Eliminating affirmative action would substantially reduce the share of African Americans and Hispanics among admitted students. Preferences for athletes and legacies, however, only mildly displace members of minority groups. Conclusions. Elite colleges and universities extend preferences to many types of students, yet affirmative action is the one most surrounded by controversy.     

Eligibility Criteria for Cash Assistance for Older and Disabled People in Hungary: A Model for Countries in Passage from a Planned to a Market Economy

Correspondence to Ruth Landau, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel. Summary The political and economic changes presently taking place inthe Central and Eastern European countries are accompanied byprofound social changes for which, in terms of personal well-being,older and disabled people pay the highest price. Having lostthe security of a minimum standard of living, many are exposedto poverty in its broadest sense. The collapse of governmentalarrangements to provide for the minimum needs of this populationled to the establishment of non-governmental voluntary socialagencies. Unfortunately, these are characterized by limitedresources on the one hand, and lack of trained and skilled socialwork staff on the other. Based on the experience of a Hungariannon-governmental social agency, a model for eligibility criteriafor cash assistance under these circumstances, taking vulnerabilityas a key concept, is suggested for the benefit and dignity ofthose most in need.     

联合国会员国的身份获得与主权国家身份建构——以巴勒斯坦申请加入联合国为例

主权国家不仅是一个由实效性要素所构成的实体,而且也是国际社会广泛认同的一种国际主体身份。联合国的承认与接纳不仅对主权国家身份在国际社会的全面建构具有直接的权威确认和支撑作用,而且也对主权国家充分享有其主权权利并实际参与国际关系有着十分重要的作用。因此,"接纳新会员国"机制为主权国家身份全面建构提供了一种特殊的程序机制和博弈平台。为实现实质性的独立建国目标,巴勒斯坦正式申请加入联合国。对此,国际社会目前存在着明显的分歧,并形成了多种博弈力量以及错综复杂的博弈格局。